Art Borups Corners
Incubating Digital Arts and Creative Entrepreneurship
Our program was born out of the pandemic, as a grassroots effort to bring artists and community together. It was designed to be small, with a focus on building from the ground up, our goal was to foster creativity and innovation among artists and makers alike. Our program designed a unique and supportive space for experimentation, where new ideas can flourish and grow.
This pilot arts-oriented, volunteer-driven arts collective was a digital arts and entrepreneurship initiative aiming to support the design and testing of a culturally-aligned and community-focused digital creative incubator. Since our first programs in 2021-2022 our projects provide synchronous and asynchronous training, educating youth and community members about the use of digital technologies to create and valorize their artistic work.
Its primary purpose was to build upon proven cultural entrepreneurship training to foster new arts industry employment through a careful balance of traditional knowledge, science and modern technologies. Indigenous artists from Northwestern Ontario, Nunavut and Manitoba were able to connect with, and learn alongside an inclusive, diverse team of researchers, arts educators and professional artists.
The original idea for this experimental Incubator for Digital Arts and Cultural Entrepreneurship was to design, develop and test an urban and land-based arts and culture training program for next-generation Indigenous talent, with the goal to incubate opportunities for sustainable self-employment.
This project supported our ability to develop sector-wide and cross-sector collaborations, partnerships, and networks to address the challenges urban and newly-urban Indigenous emerging artists faced during the Covid-19 pandemic. We were able to explore creative methods and sectoral approaches aimed at increasing digital and data literacy while supporting ongoing digital transformation of our program to better participate in arts sector activities.
Objectives
Key objectives in supporting professional development and organizational capacity building for arts services included:
Building a resilient and healthy arts sector;
Ensuring artists and other arts professionals have access to learning opportunities;
Enhancing capacity building for arts organizations, in particular new groups, collectives and emerging artists;
Promoting diversity and increased collaboration within the arts community.
With support of strategic innovation funding from the Canada Council for the Arts and its new Digital Greenhouse program, our project sought to capitalize on one specific opportunity and challenge: The increasing reliance and utilization of digital communication technologies and collaborative hardware/software solutions to connect physically remote locations with each other and major urban centers.
Arts and Participatory Research
Supporting arts-based and participatory programs, Art Borups Corners was created with funding from the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Greenhouse
Dyment Recreation Hall
The Dyment Recreation Hall is one of the key spaces supporting recreation programming for the township's two communities of Dyment and Borups Corners.
The Cook Shack
The Cook Shack restaurant and food stand is part of our central hub for the community, supporting food security and community events throughout the year.
We are incredibly thankful to the students and faculty from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design Creative Entrepreneurship and Master of Arts in Creative Leadership programs.
Visit Our Community Arts and Climate Entrepreneurship Collectives
Our community and regional programs and project have been made possible through support and funding from a number of institutions in the United States and Canada.
